4 members of Ahmadi community arrested on blasphemy charges in Pakistan

Lahore, Aug 29 (PTI) Four members of Pakistan's minority Ahmadi community have been arrested on blasphemy charges in Punjab province, police said on Thursday.

Police have booked and arrested Awais, Waqas, Sultan and Zaki for allegedly burning pages of the Quran in Narowal district, some 130kms from Lahore, on the complaint of a religious leader.

According to the FIR, Muhammad Imran, a local leader of Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, told police that he was present at a mosque in the village, Dharg Miana of Narowal, when he saw four men burning some papers on a garbage heap in a street which were pages of the Quran.

"When I shouted at them from the rooftop of the mosque, the four men who were burning the pages managed to flee," he said.

He said he informed the police, which reached the spot and recorded the statements of the eyewitnesses.

The arrested Ahmadis are facing 295B and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to an official of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya Pakistan, there has been a wave of hatred against the Ahmadi community in Pakistan as extremist elements term the Ahmadis liable to death. He said Ahmadis are often framed in fake cases because of their faith.

Pakistan's Parliament in 1974 declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are forbidden from preaching and from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage.

Several Ahmadis were killed in recent months for their faith mostly in Punjab.

According to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in 2021, there are 96.47 per cent Muslims in the country, followed by 2.14 per cent Hindus, 1.27 per cent Christians, 0.09 per cent Ahmadi Muslims and 0.02 per cent others.

Minorities, especially Ahmadis, are very vulnerable in Pakistan and they are often targeted by religious extremists. PTI MZ ZH ZH